How to Help Your Elderly Parent Organize their Home

Seniors need help finding what they require in poorly organized homes. Living in a disorganized environment causes unnecessary stress. It puts aging adults at risk of injury, but organizing their homes can seem daunting when they've piled up a lot of stuff over the years. These four tips on home organizer ideas help you assist your elders in creating a much more comfortable living area.

1.    Think strategically and plan ahead of time.
You know how they say, "Rome wasn't built in a day?" The same is true for your loved one's clutter in the home. As you begin to assist your senior in decluttering, keep in mind that they are likely to have a lifetime's worth of belongings around the house - and it will take some level-headed prepping to tackle it all.

2. Test the "Four Box" Method
The "four boxes" organizing method works as follows:
Place four boxes for each of your parents' rooms:
●    "Keep Until I Die" For sentimental items like family heirlooms, private letters, wedding china, and photo albums.
●    "Appraise and Sell" for unwanted items.
●    "Keep with Me" for non-emotional items like furniture and art.
●    "Garage Sale/Donate" to dispose of unwanted items.
Then, go through each room with your elders, sorting their belongings.

3.  Allow plenty of time.
Household organization is not a task that can be completed within a few hours, or over a long weekend. Your loved one is likely to have a lifetime's worth of items to sort through. You'll probably get sidetracked along the way, whether by new cleaning tasks (like clearing up dust that gets picked up by cleaning out the attic), unexpected works (like organizing a filing cabinet/chest of storage boxes), or long, exciting chats with your loved one. All of this is a routine part of the process.

4. After a few weeks, reevaluate the system.
A well-organized parent's house is one that your loved ones can conveniently continue to utilize without adding to the clutter. Once everything is in place, keep a look at your parent periodically for weeks to see how things are going. Ideally, he or she ought to feel at ease with the new system, and there shouldn't be any excessive clutter.

With all these four organized home ideas, If you want to go a step further, home services can indeed be beneficial, particularly for people who live a long distance away from their parents.